THE BRUNSWKIffeftACON D THURSDAY, MARCH 7. 1991 ' D under the sun ^ f THEIR CARGO RANGED FROM PIGS TO PRESIDENTS Steamboats Once Linked Rural Areas On Cape Fear Waterways HY SUSAN USHER The first steamboat on the Cape Fear River, the Prometheus , had been in operation about a year when it earned what was to be its most presti gious passenger. Constructed by Otway Burns at Swansbo rough, the Prometheus had arrived at the Cape Fear in 1817, and was used as a packet boat between Wilmington and Smithvillc. Carrying freight, mail and passengers, the boat went into regular service June 20, 1818. On April 17, 1819, its complement was anything but usual, including the president of the United States, Wilmington researcher Bill Reaves notes in Volume I of his Southport : A Chronology. James Monroe, serving his first term as the nation's fifth president, traveled from Wilmington to Smithvillc, now Southport, aboard the Prometheus. From Smith ville, he proceeded to Georgetown, that purpose, leaving the name of the boat and the com pany that owned it and how much wood was taken, said Mrs. Brown. "If there were no woodpiles along the way and wood was needed, the crew would go into the river swamps and cut what was needed," she said. 'The river swamps were considered common property." Stopped On Demand While there were about 115 official landings between Wilmington and Elizabcthtown alone, as a rule the boats didn't stop at every landing on each trip. Rather, they watched for signals ? a white Hag tied out or, at night, the glow of a lantern. Upon arrival the boat would blow its whistle three times and people living around would all run to the landing, she said. Of all the steamers that plied area waters, only two 5.C., by other means. One hundred feet long and flat boiiomed, it was said the paddle wheel steamer "could run on a heavy dew," though her career was a shortlived seven years, notes Bonita Dale Brown of Currie. Mrs. Brown has spent the past 10 years researching the steamers that once ran the Cape Fear River and its tributaries. She spoke re cently about river boats on the Cape Fear to the William Gause Chapter, National Society of the Daughters of the American Revo lution. Mrs. Brown's interest in steam - boating was piqued by Olivia Prid gen, grandmother of her husband, Teddy Brown. "She told us stories of riding to Wilmington on the Alice and the Whiilock. She would then take the train to Enfield where her husband's family lived." Hooked On River Lore Other older people in the com munity also had memories of the steamers; soon she was hooked on the stories they told. Armed with a basic text, F. Roy Johnson's River boating in Lower Carolina, Mrs. Brown began her continuing pur suit of factual details, oral histories and photographs relating to the steamers. But all the pleasure isn't in the Finding; it's also in the sharing, as when she was able to link another local researcher, Jerry Dunn of Wilmington, with a photograph of his grandfather and his farm-to market steamer, the Black River. "That's what makes it fun to me," she said. "I would do it every day if I didn't have anything else to do." When she started collecting, Mrs. Brown '"and there were more than 100 of tne boats and they ran these rivers from 1817 until 1939. All of the larger steamboats had WOTO COURTESY OF BONITA DALE MOWN THE "ALICE," captained by John Lewis, was among the steamers that in their heyday ran regularly along the lower Cape Fear River, Town Creek and Black River. This photo was taken at Lone Creek. a cook who cooked for the captain and crew, she said. Meals were served to passengers on long trips such as from Wilmington to Fayetteville. Some of the boats were elaborately furnished, especially the captain's quarters. Some guests dined with the captain, a special privilege. A few boats even had saloons. These were usually on the upper decks, away from the majority of the passen gers. Many of the boats had as many as 30 berths for the passengers who made long trips. The Thelma, built in 1914, ran between Wilmington and Fayetteville, then Wilmington and Elizabethtown, finally sinking at the bridge in Elizabethtown. It had 10 staterooms on the second deck, said Mrs. Brown, and the fare from Kelly's Cove (near Currie) to Wilmington was 75 cents one-way, including lodging and two meals. The steamboats made stops along the river at springs or artesian wells to bring drinking water on board. They also stopped for firewood stacked along the river for were paddlewheeiers, the Prometheus and the side wheeler Henrietta, which was built in Fayetteville and ran between there and Wilmington. She made her first trip in July 1818, and had a lot of mechanical problems, said Mrs. Brown. "On the sharp turns in the river she had to be 'dropped around.' Several of the men had to secure a line to a tree on the bank so she could be hand pulled around the bend." Still, in her old age, the Henrietta was called the fastest boat on the river because she made the 115-mile trip in less than 10 hours. She logged more than a mil lion and a half miles on the river during her 40-year ca reer. Service Slow To Expand While commercial and excursion steamers became a matter of course along the Cape Fear River and on the river between Wilmington and Smithville, it was 50 or more years later before steamboat services came up Town Creek and other tributaries of the Cape Fear. "It was not because people didn't want a more effi Black River. The Whitlock , which was supposedly named for a pop ular missionary Baptist minister in Wilmington, operated on the Cape Fear River, Black River and Town Creek. She was built at Point Caswell, at the time a bustling town off Black River that boasted saloons, whorehous es, boatworks, banks and post office. But, said Mrs. Brown, "When the boats quit operating the town just disappeared." The Whitlock was among the last of the steamers, re tiring from service in 1926. Plying Area Waters Other steamers include the Buck, which operated on Town Creek and Black River; the C.F?>? with Cap! w. Taft, which operated on Town Creek; the City of Wilmington, which ran the Wilmington to Southport route; the Cynthia, which ran the lower Cape Fear, and the Elk, which operated from Wilmington to Town Creek. 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